That's a good question to ask, but AFAIK the answer is 'we tried that and so far have been unable to exploit it.'
If OBE's involved some unsuspected extension of physical reality, then when someone is outside their own body, it should be possible to learn things that would not be knowable otherwise, eg to report an item placed under a bed, out of view of the experimental subject lying in the bed. I don't know if that's been tried, but there was extensive research into psychic phenomena in the 1970s that failed to yield any useful results. If you could gather hidden information during an induced out-of-body-experience that would be massive scientific breakthrough, and such an experiment would be trivially easy to design, so why hasn't it happened?
I am sympathetic to the idea because I've had chemically-induced experiences, including during surgery, that seemed extremely real, as well as certain experiences with precognition that I am unable to explain (ie trying to apply the most rigorous observational standards to an unfalsifiable situation; I am honestly unable to explain the phenomenon but I can't exclude the possibility of an episodic delusion, so scientifically it's almost worthless).
If OBE's involved some unsuspected extension of physical reality, then when someone is outside their own body, it should be possible to learn things that would not be knowable otherwise, eg to report an item placed under a bed, out of view of the experimental subject lying in the bed. I don't know if that's been tried, but there was extensive research into psychic phenomena in the 1970s that failed to yield any useful results. If you could gather hidden information during an induced out-of-body-experience that would be massive scientific breakthrough, and such an experiment would be trivially easy to design, so why hasn't it happened?
I am sympathetic to the idea because I've had chemically-induced experiences, including during surgery, that seemed extremely real, as well as certain experiences with precognition that I am unable to explain (ie trying to apply the most rigorous observational standards to an unfalsifiable situation; I am honestly unable to explain the phenomenon but I can't exclude the possibility of an episodic delusion, so scientifically it's almost worthless).